We are a literate, intermediate to advanced AU Transformers RPG Based off of the first season of TFP with dashes of other incarnations sprinkled here or there. Characters from any continuity are welcome however must be restyled to match the TFPrime universe.
Active, with ongoing plotlines, we are always willing to integrate new characters into storylines once incorporated into the setting.
"You just don't want to encourage the little one to wander off. It's a big base, but it has a lot of sparkling-sized hiding places, and toys that move encourage movement. I am not explaining to Ironhide why his sparkling followed our gift into a human-sized maintenance tunnel and we had to send Rattrap in to retrieve hir."
Aaaand that idea didn't bear too much thinking about...though it did give her another.
"Now, one thing that the cohort might find useful is some sort of homing signal. I can't count the number of times that would have helped me track down Sandstorm when he started exploring."
Oh yes. Sparkling + Rattrap = bad things and Ironhide getting severely pissed off. Rhinox foresaw a lot of sitting on his friend in his future.
Ah well. Anything for sparklings.
"It'd have to be an encrypted signal," Rhinox mused. "The last thing we need is for the sparkling to be wearing a big shiny 'come get me' beacon for the Decepticons to follow. Still, that should be simple enough." He nodded. "Perhaps something that can ping status updates as well."
"Encrypted signal," Airazor agreed, relieved that Rhinox was focused - for the moment - somewhere other than 'bigger, shinier, more moving parts.' "The range wouldn't need to be terribly long, since I doubt there's much chance of the sparkling getting out of the base, but we will want to make certain the signal can't be blocked by any of the materials used in the base.
"Of course, if we're using it as a tracking beacon, we're going to want to make the toy easy for the sparkling to hold on to and carry around. And attention holding; it doesn't do any good if ou puts it down somewhere and wanders off."
Oh dear, it seemed Rhinox's enthusiasm was contagious.
It did tend to be, but Rhinox didn't see a problem with that. He appreciated Airazor's contributions - she tended to come up with good ideas.
"Hmm. I'd suggest a tether if it wasn't for the danger of the sparkling getting tangled in it." Rhinox tapped his chin, optics dim in thought. "And I'm sure someone else can risk Ironhide's wrath by suggesting a leash, anyway."
He turned to his blueprint pad and drew up a sphere, then split it into interlocking rings that surrounded a 'core' that - as the little 'shiny!' lines he drew around it proved - would light up. "What do you think? Multiple grasping points for little hands."
"And multiple control points," Airazor said thoughtfully, adding her own additions to the diagram. "Variable settings, from responding to simple touch to requiring multiple contact points in sequence, possibly even a tonal component, so it can be adjusted in complexity as the sparkling's processor develops. Start, say, with each ring producing a different colored light when it's touched, and work up from there."
Sparkfelt amusement rippled through her field. "I'd say have one ring produce a different effect, like sound, but I'm fairly sure that would end in the cohort hunting us down as soon as the noisemaker became the bitlet's favorite ring to grab. Maybe some other mild feedback, though, like vibration or temperature changes."
Rhinox laughed. "Right. Let's write that down." In large glyphs over the sketch, he wrote Must Not Make Cohort Want To Hunt Us Down. All mad scientists had to be wary of the torches and pitchforks, after all.
"So, lights, vibration, temperature, possibly not something that goes beep." Rhinox scribbled out the beginnings of a quick supply list. "Each ring would have to be a different color, so that when the sparkling finds an effect ou likes, ou can find it again. And a tracking feature. Tracking codes given to the cohort and probably Ratchet and Prime." He sat back, frowned. "And a self-contained power source. Hmm."
"A well sealed self-contained power source." Airazor remembered the 'take everything apart' stage far too well. "Something like we used to use in the deep sea recording units. Pity those are at the bottom of one of this planet's oceans along with the rest of the Axalon."
She could practically hear the idea forming in Rhinox's processor, and cut him off before he could do more than open his mouth. "No, we are not asking League to mount an expedition to the bottom of the Pacific to get batteries for a toy. At least," she amended, "not until we've asked Rattrap if he has any stashed anywhere."
Rhinox's shoulders drooped. "But they'd be perfect," he argued, even knowing it was futile. "They're a good size, we wouldn't have to fabricate new ones, and it'd be - nice, to give the little one a piece of the Axalon."
He was pretty sure their commander would approve of the Axalon's salvage being put to such a use. He'd liked newsparks, whether tiny sparklings or full-frames. He'd dreamed of sparking one of his own, after the war was over - and it was always when with him, not if.
"...it'd be - nice, to give the little one a piece of the Axalon."
Rhinox's words tugged at something in Airazor's spark, and she exvented quietly. "Rattrap may have something. You know how he is about collecting things, and we knew there was a good chance the Axalon wouldn't make it across the ocean. I wouldn't be the least surprised if he managed to cram half our supplies in his subspace before we left Hawaii."
And if he hadn't...well, she doubted League was the sort to volunteer to go looking for parts so they could build a gift for the newspark. On the other hand, those power supplies could be useful to Team Prime... "And if he didn't, I suppose we could suggest to the Prime that salvaging the Axalon might be useful. I doubt he'd begrudge us a single power supply for Ironhide's sparkling."
Rhinox smiled to himself, tucked an arm over Airazor's shoulders. "Thank you," he murmured. "You're the best."
His teammates did indulge him in his crazy ideas - Rattrap as well as Airazor. If his friend really did have components from the Axalon he could use, it wouldn't be the first time Rhinox would have taken parts from one of Rattrap's extensive collections.
Glowing with affection and family, Rhinox wrote piece of the Axalon on his blueprint.
Airazor leaned into Rhinox's embrace, feeling lighter than she had since hearing the news of Ironhide's expanding cohort. "I'm sure that if the others could be here, they'd all be in agreement," she said. She smiled up at him wryly, "Though Blackarachnia would feel the need to remind us she hates kids, and Siege would just snarl over the whole idea."
A snicker escaped Rhinox. "Siege would be secretly over the moons and you know it," he said. "He'd lobby to call the little one Destroyer of Worlds, or something. And his ideas for a sparkling toy would be decidedly more dangerous than anything I could think up and you know it."
"Siege would give hir a sword," Airazor said with a laugh. "And not a toy sword, just a sparkling sized one. Probably forged from the plating of his enemies, knowing him." It amused her just how easily she could picture the irritable warrior's reaction. "And then he'd call hir Destroyer of Worlds until ou honestly thought that was hir designation.
"And at some point," she finished with a grin, "Rattrap would find himself being hunted, and Siege would pretend to have no idea what could have put that in little Destroyer's mind."
See Rhinox, see Rhinox laugh so hard he nearly falls over and takes Airazor with him.
"Oh, Primus, he so would," he chortled. "And he'd maintain his innocence through lecture after lecture, but then he'd give you that smirk..." He reset his equilibrium circuits and tried to regain his balance. "And Rattrap would have something new to complain about, so he'd be happy."